Liberia has a rare opportunity to finally establish a war crimes court to address, at last, serious international crimes committed during Liberia’s two civil wars and social upheaval between 1979 and 2003. But turning political momentum into reality will require swift legislative action, sustained international support, and meaningful engagement with victims and civil society.
The Liberian government took a critical step toward justice in this regard in May, when President Joseph Boakai, building on a commitment during his 2024 inaugural address, submitted a draft bill to Liberia’s legislature that would set up a war crimes court.
Although the wars ended more than two decades ago, their horrific legacy remains. The wars are estimated to have claimed at least tens of thousands of lives, with some estimates reaching as high as 250,000. The conflicts were characterized by summary executions, massacres, rape and other sexual violence, mutilation and torture, and forced recruitment and use of child combatants, by all parties. Although a handful of people have been prosecuted in foreign courts under the principle of universal jurisdiction, no one has been held to account in Liberia for grave crimes during the conflicts. The country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission called for a special court to prosecute such crimes in its final report as long ago as 2009.
Boakai’s legislative proposal follows another bill for a war crimes court, a measure championed by Liberian civil society organizations, that is already pending. Both bills incorporate elements from the National Bar Association’s 2021 draft law for the establishment of a war crimes court to prosecute crimes under international law, while also incorporating additional provisions, including offenses under Liberian criminal law. The Boakai and CSO proposals differ in important respects, and each has strengths as well as areas that should be improved. Lawmakers should use the coming harmonization process to combine the strongest elements of each bill and make any further revisions that might be necessary to establish the most effective framework for a war crimes court.
Steps toward enacting these parallel legislative efforts are underway, with debate ongoing and an upcoming hearing scheduled for Oct. 19, among other parliamentary consultations. The Senate Judiciary Committee reportedly has a goal of holding a final vote by December.
A Slow But Certain Push Forward
The draft legislation is the latest in a slow but certain push toward justice. In May 2024, Boakai issued an executive order to create an Office of the War and Economic Crimes Court for Liberia as a semi-autonomous entity within the Justice Ministry. Initially with a one-year mandate, based on Liberian practice for executive orders, and aimed at setting up a Special War Crimes Court and a National Anti-Corruption Court, the Office has been renewed annually. Under Boakai’s latest executive order, on May 3, the Office is directed to finalize formal steps toward establishing the courts, prepare a transition plan for handover to such courts, and, by March 1, 2027, begin dissolution of the Office.
Over the course of 2024 and first half of 2025, Liberian and international civil society organizations pressed Boakai to ensure the Office would adopt a roadmap toward establishing the court. On May 31, 2025, it submitted a roadmap to the president, with timelines, phases and main activities leading to the establishment of both courts.
The phases would include training and capacity-building actions designed to set up the courts as well as plans for investigating and collecting evidence and otherwise laying the groundwork for the court’s operation. The roadmap also envisions a residual mechanism that would carry out the court’s remaining essential functions after it has completed its work, such as appeals and judgment reviews, and preserving court records and evidence.
Importantly, the roadmap established that the court will follow a hybrid model, based on a clear recommendation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for a court that would be composed of domestic and international jurists and would apply a combination of domestic and international criminal law. Hybrid courts with a mandate over serious international crimes have been set up in several other contexts, including Sierra Leone and Central African Republic. Collectively, these two courts have secured 28 convictions (so far) and produced several landmark cases that have contributed significantly to the development of international criminal law.
Other features of such hybrid courts that also provide a measure of independence from the host country’s criminal system, even while remaining rooted in that system, include funding from a variety of sources, both domestic and foreign. Although the Liberia Office roadmap left specifics of this court’s hybrid design unspecified, both the civil society and government bills clearly envision a hybrid court, illustrating how the Truth Commission provided an important foundation for subsequent legislative proposals by outlining key elements for a future statute.
The Office’s roadmap also calls for an independent investigation unit to collect evidence, and a program to train at least 50 national investigators, prosecutors, and judges for the future court. In February, the European Union and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights initiated a two-year program to support the training of such officials, though it has not yet been established. The Office and all relevant authorities — including the Justice Ministry and lawmakers — should seize the opportunity now to move ahead.
Establishing the War Crimes Court
First, the office should provide clarity and ensure that all measures are being taken towards the establishment of the court by November 2027, based on the reported timeline outlined in the Office of the War Crimes Court’s May 2025 roadmap (which hasn’t been posted online). Civil society organizations have raised concerns that this timeline is too long, given their fears that political interests may shift in advance of Liberia’s 2029 presidential elections, as well as the reality that victims and alleged perpetrators are reaching old age. So the Office of the War and Economic Crimes Court must provide clear signs that it can and will indeed meet that deadline. Examples of progress could include clear capacity-building plans, along with updates on establishing the investigative unit and training initiatives.
While the May 2026 executive order renewing the office’s mandate for another year highlighted progress, it also underscored the need for greater transparency and strengthened oversight by the Justice Ministry of the office’s work. This is reflected in the inclusion of more robust oversight provisions in the order, including quarterly financial and operational reports.
The Liberian Legislature (parliament) will need to adopt comprehensive legislation to establish the war crimes court. The office, the Justice Ministry and the presidency, international partners, and civil society organizations should actively encourage lawmakers to promote timely and inclusive legislative hearings that can support the adoption of a strong legal and operational framework for the court. This process should be grounded in genuine and meaningful consultations with victims and affected communities, civil society organizations, experts and other key stakeholders.
Liberian civil society organizations have already called on the legislature to hold public hearings. In an encouraging move, on June 10, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced the adoption of a roadmap designed to harmonize the competing bills on a statute for the future court currently under consideration and plans to hold consultations during the second half of the year.
Support – and Pressure – From Diverse Players
The legislative process has been the result of a push by a range of players. While the Office of the War and Economic Crimes Court established a technical drafting committee to prepare a statute based in part on the National Bar Association’s 2021 draft, as well as other sources, initial progress was limited. As a result, lawmakers and civil society offered alternative legislative proposals.
In October 2025, Senators Joseph Jallah and Nyonblee Karnga Lawrence introduced a bill to establish the war crimes court, which included a draft statute. Civil society organizations raised concerns, citing a lack of stakeholder consultations and concerns about whether the court would function as a truly independent hybrid mechanism, particularly given the absence in the bill of an appeals chamber.
In December, civil society groups, together with the Independent National Commission on Human Rights, submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee (formally the Committee on the Judiciary, Human Rights, Claims and Petitions), an amendment to that bill with a revised statute, under which the war crimes court would more clearly follow a hybrid model, including an independent appellate body to consider appeals. That draft also includes a comprehensive list of crimes that should be covered, including provisions on war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The civil society proposal helped move the legislative process forward and pushed the Office to advance with its own drafting efforts. In January, the Office submitted its own draft statute to the Justice Ministry; that reached the legislature on May 20. In addition to also envisioning a hybrid model for the court, the bill enumerates the crimes to be prosecuted and defines the different ways a person may incur criminal responsibility, such as through direct participation, ordering, or aiding and abetting, as well as other core principles of international criminal law, such as irrelevance of official capacity as a defense.
While the submission of these legislative proposals represents an important step forward, the final bill should include all benchmarks of fair, independent, meaningful and credible trials: crimes and modes of liability in line with international standards; full guarantees of due process for defendants; and genuine participation and protection for victims and witnesses. Moreover, drafters should build on similar experiences in other countries that have set up hybrid courts.
The Necessary Resources
Finally, the Liberian government should aim to provide all the necessary human and financial resources toward the establishment of the war crimes court. A realistic allocation and timely distribution of funds by the Liberian government and international donors is needed for the process to move forward, particularly in light of the dramatic cuts in global foreign aid. In the absence of a clearly defined overall budget, there remains uncertainty regarding the scope, structure, and operational requirements of the prospective court.
Liberian human rights organizations have pressed vigorously for the establishment of the war crimes court, including by relentlessly calling on their government to implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendations. Ahead of Liberia’s November 2025 United Nations Universal Periodic Review, civil society organizations, including Human Rights Watch (where I work), called on the Office to take concrete measures toward establishing the court. This was echoed in a joint oral statement delivered by civil society organizations during the adoption of the review in March 2026.
The Liberian government has also sought international support. During his speech at the opening debate of the 80th U.N. General Assembly in 2025, President Boakai called on the international community to support the accountability process in Liberia. Several countries voiced their support during Liberia’s Universal Periodic Review, calling on the country to provide the necessary resources and enact the needed legislation, among other measures.
The United States showed support from the beginning, which was important given the historical ties between the two countries. Successive U.S. administrations, including the Trump administration, have publicly expressed support for the Liberian accountability process. But none of those pledges has thus far resulted in financial assistance, and the odds seem particularly steep now, given the Trump administration’s massive foreign aid cuts.
Sweden and the European Union have also been key allies and have signaled that they remain committed to these efforts, but have appealed to the Liberian government to take decisive action toward the functioning of the war crimes court, emphasizing that it is imperative for the process to remain Liberian-led.
The Swedish government has provided funds to the U.N. to be used to support the effort. Continued commitment is key in light of the Swedish government’s announcement of its upcoming closure of its embassy in Monrovia, as Sweden has been among the largest bilateral donors in Liberia. In February, the EU and the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) initiated a US$724,000 program designed to support transitional justice mechanisms in Liberia for 2026 and 2027, including the establishment of both courts.
This adds to existing technical assistance and capacity-building initiatives, including by the U.N. OHCHR has assisted Liberian authorities, including representatives of the Office, in facilitating training for civil society organizations on transitional justice.
While it seems clear that the Liberian government continues to have the political support of international partners, the government and all relevant authorities, including within the Liberian Legislature, need to show continued commitment to the promise of justice for hundreds of thousands of their citizens who were victims and survivors. Liberia should move forward promptly and resolutely to make the court operational. In the interest of advancing justice, accountability, and the rule of law in Liberia, and building on their longstanding support for the country’s peacebuilding and governance efforts, international partners, including donor governments, should continue to support these efforts.
